Question

How does the law of conservation of energy relate to a bat hitting a baseball?

Answer 1

Hint: The question is based on the concept of the law of conservation of energy. So, the application of this law in sports, that is, in terms of energy transfer between the bat and ball will be discussed.

Complete answer:
The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be transferred from one part of the system to other parts. Energy is transferred within/between different systems. The input energy is transferred through the system and energy is conserved.
This means that in the universe the energy is never lost. If the baseball is hit by a bat, the energy transfer from only the bat to the base ball does not take place. Firstly, the energy gets transferred from the hand to the bat, then, from the bat, the entry gets transferred to the base ball. The transfer of energy from one to the other object does not stop here. It continues, till the baseball loses the energy gained and returns to its original state of rest, that is, once the base ball hits the ground, the heat energy gets transferred from the base ball to the ground. (Considering, the energy gets transferred from the ground to the human in the very beginning).
\[\therefore \]However, in real life this doesn't exist so for this example, as, not only the energy transfer but also some other parameters such as momentum, projectile motion and rotational energy takes place.

Note:
As the Law of Conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system remains constant or that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, rather, it can only be transformed from one form to another.